article thumbnail

Getting A Software Patent Is Valuable But Frustrating

Startup Professionals Musings

For a software startup, a patent can be the intellectual property providing the key competitive advantage, or it can be an expensive non-defensible bureaucratic nightmare -- or both. The reason that lawyers get large fees for patent filings is that legal negotiation and strategy have become more important than technical merit.

Patents 53
article thumbnail

Many Startups Stumble on International Cultures

Startup Professionals Musings

The international opportunity is large, as I related in an earlier article , but there are some major challenges as well. Our own subsidiary, of a major technology company, started to repair and service competitive products in order to maintain our own technical staff and service capabilities.

Startup 90
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

In that article I linked to I outline the difference between gross margin & net margin. In these kinds of businesses I’m on the record as advising “ Ring the Freakin Cash Register.” You technically have more gas left but you never know if some unexpected circumstance causes you to run out of gas.

Startup 383
article thumbnail

Startup Weekend LA | An Insiders Story of a Startup on Steroids

Tech Zulu Event

The team needed would consist of at least 1 non-technical business person (me) and 2 or more technical people—designer and developer. I was only able to create a team with non-technical business people and a designer. The next day, the technical team started coding away, building a cool game for developers to battle skills on.

Startup 99
article thumbnail

International Cultures are Key Business Challenges

Startup Professionals Musings

The opportunity is large, as I related in an earlier article , but there are some major challenges as well. As a follow-on to that article, here are a few examples from my personal experience: You need to translate/localize your products. We retained legal council in Milan and were advised that we would loose if the case went to trial.

article thumbnail

Tech Giants’ Partnership To Explore Ethics, Societal Impacts of AI

Xconomy

Each company is investing untold billions of dollars in developing AI technologies, betting on a future defined by computer systems that can perceive, reason, advise, and decide. As the technology has advanced, so has the competitive landscape.

article thumbnail

Roping in the Legal Eagles

InfoChachkie

free weekly Infochachkie articles! Your lawyer is a trusted advisor, but in the end, you run your business, your lawyer does not. In other words, find a lawyer who will take the time to understand the issues underlying your business and advise you how to best accomplish your objectives while minimizing your legal exposure.